More Success Tips for School Leaders in the 21st Century

25 Apr More Success Tips for School Leaders in the 21st Century

Thank you to all those who read my article last week. What a great world we live in! By being connected to you through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook I have received more great tips over the past week from people all around the world to add to my original list.

Here is a list of more strategic tips with links to the owners of the ideas. I hope they help you drive your school into the future and develop students who are resilient, creative, compassionate and entrepreneurial global citizens and prepared for their future, not ours.

1. Listen to the ‘Voice’ of your students. They will tell you how to get the most out of them. Dr. Hassan ElKalla, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BAdr Univeristy, Cairo, Egypt
2. Liberate your students to make changes in their voice, choice, contribution and authorship, peer teaching/learning, challenge, leadership, governance, control and international partnerships. Support your teachers to guide that change. Ralph Tabberer, Education Management UAE 
3. Use systems thinking and introduce vertical/mixed-age dimensions to move from our linear same age organizations to ones where the fundamental premise is mixed-age and interconnected.  Peter A Barnard, Systems Thinker, UK
4. Move away from a model dominated by a subject-based curriculum and implement a problem solving project-based model that integrates subject knowledge and understanding real world application. Roland Meredith, Chair of STEMtech, UK
5. Implement learning environments and approaches where children and young people can see purpose and context in their learning.  Ensure a focus on deep learning where the learners are able to work through a learning cycle that enables them to ‘own’ what they learn. Use the Kolb Model: Knowledge – Understanding – Application – Reflection. Roland Meredith, Chair of STEMtech, UK
6. Continually assess and modify in order to keep growing! Mary Alvarez, Doctoral Student Texas, USA 
7. Transform the minds of both the students and their parents by using the concept of a ‘growth mindset’. Derek King, Principal, California, USA
8. Research significant ideas from the experts, for example, the New Basics by Allan Luke, Jim Ladwig et al., Learning by Design by Kalantzis & Cope and the Philosophy For Children, originally framed by Dewey. Margie Burrell, Principal, Australia
9. Remember that the future is an exciting place and you get to work with wonderful kids and enthusiastic teachers. Make sure your leadership team laughs and argues with equal enthusiasm. Margie Burrell, Principal, Australia
10. Attend ‘Leadership for the 21st Century’ workshop in May to explore and improve your 21st Century Leadership capabilities. Register here.